1. Field of the Invention
The present invention refers to the field of post print press processing, specifically a collating apparatus and method for operating a collating apparatus.
2. Discussion of Related Art
The prior art discloses rigid solutions for collating printed products, which are based on an arrangement of feed stations on a circular or virtually circular conveying track. The document U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,018 discloses a collating apparatus which is based on the object of configuring a machine for inserting newspaper sections into newspaper covers in such a way that it continues to remain in operation even when some assemblies therein fail. This object is achieved in that, on the side of the magazine and downstream of the latter in the direction of migration of the pockets, there is an auxiliary magazine likewise containing covers, the conveyor of which is independent of the conveyor of the magazine and is under the control of a sensor which is assigned to the conveyor of the magazine and responds to the failure of the latter in such a way that, in this case, the conveyor of the auxiliary magazine can be moved in and loads the relevant pocket with the cover. Here, the circular conveying track comprises two identical 180° sectors which, in parallel and in the same way, fill covers with documents and then discharge the latter via two outlets to two conveyor belts. Flexible post processing is not provided.
A similar fault-tolerant collating apparatus having a plurality of outputs and a circular conveying track is also known from EP 0389745. A different type of post processing is not provided in this collating apparatus either. Instead, when one of the plurality of collating lines is interrupted, this collating line is stopped while the other lines continue to operate.
With these known, rigid apparatuses, the problem primarily solved is to continue to process large quantities of printed products, such as arise from the printing press—in particular from the rotary system—in real time.